Woodstock lost one of its great champions on Saturday, November 22, when — a few weeks shy of 88 — Douglas Craig James: musician, collector, lover of the arts, and increasingly reclusive philanthropist, died of complications attending pneumonia at the Hudson Valley Hospice House in Hyde Park. He was, as last week’s letter from John Simon attested, “bright, funny, kind, tasteful, appreciative, modest and just delightful.”

He was also, as a local architect friend said, “the most complex man I’ve ever known.”

Hailing from a family which, in Doug’s own words, “passed down a sense of public service,” he was not one to suffer fools gladly. In fact, he would not long suffer them at all.

A note Doug left entitled “Ancestors and relatives of possible interest” began with “A Scott Sloan, US Congr

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